Neil Young Reminds Us Of Our Humanity In Dazzling Tour Opener In Los Angeles

Steve Baltin
I write about music and the business of music

FORBES
Jul 1, 2023

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 22: Neil Young performs at the Autism Speaks Light Up The Blues 

At one point last night (June 30), during the incredibly intimate opening night of Neil Young's west coast run, his first tour in four years, some drunken fan chugging wine from a bottle and yelling at Young as if they were the only two people there, shouted, "Neil, you're the same." Young responded, "I hardly even recognize myself."

While I would imagine one of the worst things you could yell to an artist who has built a legendary career on constant evolution and growth is you haven't changed at all, both the drunken imbecile and Young were right.

The magnificent 90-minute set under the stars at the absolutely beautiful Ford , where Young played solo to 1200 or so fans, was vintage Young in many respects. It was an unpredictable cornucopia of surprises, rich with down home charm as Young shared a dizzying array of stories and showed his musicianship. But, as he promised going into this run, Young dug deep into his catalog for songs no one would have bet on being performed in Vegas.

Coming out with just his guitar and harmonica on a stage that also included two pianos and an organ, Young opened the show just after the scheduled start time of 8:30 with a gorgeous rendition of "I'm The Ocean," performed for the first time since 1997.

For the deep, deep Young fans, this show was a dream set. From the live debuts of " A Dream That Can Last" and the sweet "Don't Forget Love" to rarities such as the beautiful piano version of the Buffalo Springfield song "Burned," done for the first time since 2009, and the more rocking "Prime Of Life," not done live since 1994, Young continually surprised the audience

In fact, the show was so laden with forgotten gems and rarities that when Young played recognizable hits such as the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young smash "Ohio" and his own "Heart Of Gold," that was the actual surprise. But that has been Young his entire career, an artist who answers to no one but himself.

Young also used the intimacy of the beautiful outdoor space to full advantage. Early on he commented, "Nice place," then joked, "We could be at the podunk coliseum." For Young, this was an opportunity, after four years off the road, to reconnect with his audience. Sometimes his stories were just funny but often, as always with him, had a very deliberate message,

After "Ohio" he offered, "That's so strange? Four people. Look how many we do away with now. I wish I had something to say to change it."

Then he joked about AI and how his piano he got in 1968 had an AI soul. But there was a point. "I am so happy I was here before AI," he said.

Besides having authored some of the greatest songs of all time and being an insanely brilliant guitarist, Young's biggest contribution to popular culture the last six decades has been famously going against the grain and, as a result, making us think about what we want and need.

So, of course, when everybody is talking about AI, out of the haze emerges Young to remind us all of our inherent humanity. That is what Neil Young does best and why he is one of our greatest artists/storytellers. Like all great artists he reminds us what we need and are missing.

Steve Baltin

I have written for Billboard, Rolling Stone, the L.A. Times, Yahoo, Vice and every other major publication as well as host the Hulu interview series Riffing With and teach music journalism for Grammy Camp. I have had countless amazing experiences in music, from tea with Neil Young and hanging in a limo with Stevie Wonder to drinking beer bongs with the Foo Fighters in Vegas and being onstage with Skrillex. When not writing about music I am hanging with my dog, playing basketball and eating sushi in sunny Southern California.

Virus-like transposons cross the species barrier, study shows

by IMBA- Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

A Maverick virus-like particle as a vector of horizontal gene transfer (HGT).

 ©IMBA-IMP Graphics. Credit: ©IMBA-IMP Graphics

Scientists have known for decades that genes can be transferred from one species to another, both in animals and plants. However, the mechanism of how such an unlikely event occurs remained unknown. Now, researchers from Alejandro Burga's lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences identify a vector of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in worms. The findings, published in Science, could lead to the discovery of further vectors of HGT in eukaryotes and might find applications in pathogen control.

Fish living in the Arctic and Antarctic oceans have evolved ingenious strategies to prevent their blood and tissues from freezing in the inhospitable polar waters. One such adaptive strategy is the evolution of genes that produce antifreeze proteins. However, over a decade ago, scientists were astounded to discover that herrings and smelts—two completely different species—have the exact same antifreeze protein encoded in their genomes, indicating a gene transfer between them.

Examples such as this raise the question: how can genes "jump" between completely different species? This rare phenomenon, known as HGT, has puzzled evolutionary biologists for a long time. And despite new instances of HGT being discovered across all branches of life over the years, the mechanisms responsible for these transfers have largely remained unknown.

Now, scientists from Alejandro Burga's group at IMBA not only catch an HGT event in the animal kingdom red-handed, but they also identify one of its long-sought vectors. By means of genetic detective work, Burga and his team showed an event of HGT between two reproductively isolated worm species that are genetically as different from each other as humans are from fish. More importantly, they could identify what caused it: a family of virus-like transposons called Mavericks.

Nailing down a culprit: Mavericks as vectors of HGT

"Mavericks were already known as a class of transposons, but our work links them to HGT for the first time," says IMBA group leader Alejandro Burga, the study's corresponding author. "We knew that HGT did take place between animal species, but we had no idea how. This is the first time that we could definitively nail down a culprit," adds co-first author Sonya Widen, a postdoctoral fellow in the Burga lab.

When Mavericks were discovered in the mid-2000s, they were initially thought to be large transposons, selfish genetic elements that jump and self-propagate in the genome at the expense of their host. Mavericks were quickly reported in most branches of eukaryotes, including humans, thus establishing that they originated a long time ago.

Transposons and viruses, nature's melting pot?

Soon, evidence that Mavericks contained genes encoding viral elements, such as a capsid and a DNA polymerase, started to surface. "The evolution of transposons and viruses is tightly intertwined," says Burga. However, the capsid and the DNA polymerase are not enough to allow a transposon to jump from its host's genome and infect the cells of a completely different host.

Now, the IMBA researchers found the missing link: Mavericks in worm genomes have acquired a so-called fusogen protein, a transmembrane protein that mediates membrane fusion between different cells. By acquiring a fusogen, the authors hypothesize that worm Mavericks became capable of forming virus-like particles that can fuse with another organism's cell membranes and infect them.

"To our knowledge, no fusogen has been reported in Mavericks before. Thus, we think that worm Mavericks might have picked up their sequence from a virus," says Widen. "Transposons and viruses can be thought of as nature's melting pot. Their union can have unpredictable repercussions and lead to genomic innovation," says Burga.

Demonstrating the significance of HGT in worms

In the study, the IMBA team led by Alejandro Burga and co-first authors Sonya Widen and Israel Campo Bes, a former master's student in the Burga lab, came across HGT "totally by chance," as Widen says. In fact, the team was studying the evolutionary origin of a selfish element in the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae. Doing some detective work, they were able to trace the sequence of this selfish gene back to another nematode, C. plicata, which carried an almost identical copy.

This finding is surprising because C. briggsae and C. plicata are two reproductively isolated species. "Their genomes are as divergent as those of humans and fish, and yet they both have an almost identical gene that clearly shows features of an evolutionarily recent HGT event," says Campo Bes.

"By carefully looking at the genome of C. plicata, we found that the ancestral sequence that gave rise to the selfish gene in C. briggsae was embedded inside a Maverick in C. plicata. The fact that this newly introduced gene subsequently evolved into a novel selfish gene in C. briggsae demonstrates the impact of HGT on genome evolution," Widen explains. The IMBA team then went on to show that Mavericks are responsible for dozens of independent HGT transfer events between worm species belonging to different genera and found all around the globe.

Agricultural and medical relevance

The IMBA scientists argue that the union between transposons and viruses is a key factor in mediating HGT. While still finding it hard to believe their success, they recognize the impact that their findings could have on lifting the mysteries of HGT. "I was convinced that we were looking at a case of HGT when we first saw these results in the lab, but I was also sure that we would never find out how it happened. Yet, the stars aligned," says Burga, who also predicts that Mavericks and similar virus-like transposable elements could mediate HGT in vertebrates and other eukaryotes.

Finally, the team foresees possible applications both in the lab and as pest control measures against parasitic worm species. "If Maverick-mediated HGT is shown to be broadly applicable to any nematode species, it has the potential to become an invaluable resource. Beyond strict lab and research applications such as the genetic manipulation of non-model nematodes, such a resource could allow us, in the future, to genetically modify parasitic nematode species that might be of agricultural or medical relevance," concludes Burga.

More information: Sonya A. Widen et al, Virus-like transposons cross the species barrier and drive the evolution of genetic incompatibilities, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade0705. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade0705

Journal information: Science 

Provided by IMBA- Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Selfish elements turn embryos into a battlefield

 

NASA unveils the trajectory of five asteroids approaching Earth

 | Updated: Jul 02, 2023, 01:37 PM IST

In recent times, a notable number of asteroids have made their close passes by Earth, with two of them occurring just yesterday. And now, NASA has revealed that there are even more asteroids on their way towards our planet, heightening the interest and concern surrounding these celestial visitors.

40-metre-wide asteroid passes by Earth on July 1

Discovered on 18 June 2023, Asteroid 2023 MB6 flew closely by Earth yesterday. It came within a distance of 2.33 million kilometres, travelling at a swift velocity of 39,391 km/h through space.  

(Photograph:Twitter)

119-metre-wide asteroid 2020 NC approaches Earth on July 2

The asteroid will pass at a distance of 5.3 million kilometres, traveling at a speed of 27,873 km/h. The image from NASA's website shows the asteroid's orbit next to Earth's. 

(Photograph:Others)

A 13-meter-wide asteroid, known as 2023 MT1, will approach Earth on July 2

The asteroid will come very close, passing at a distance of 1.1 million kilometres. 

(Photograph:Others)

Building sized asteroid, 174-metre-wide, set to approach Earth on July 5

The asteroid 2023 HO6 will make a close approach to Earth on July 5. Fortunately, it will miss our planet by a safe distance of two million kilometres. 

(Photograph:Others)

;

Recently discovered 2034 ME4 will approach Earth on July 6

With a width of approximately 24 metres, it will pass at a distance of 1.1 million kilometres. 

(Photograph:Others)

Thai elephant flown home after alleged abuse in Sri Lanka

Muthu Raja was in pain and covered in abscesses when removed from the temple last November

BBC  July 2, 2023

A Thai elephant given to Sri Lanka in 2001 has returned to its birthplace after a diplomatic row over its alleged abuse.

The 29-year old Muthu Raja arrived in Thailand on Sunday on a 19 million baht (£425,000; $540,000) commercial reparation flight.

Bangkok had demanded the return of the animal after claims it was tortured while kept at a Buddhist temple.

Sri Lanka's prime minister said he had formally apologised to the Thai king.

The 4,000kg (8,800 pounds) elephant was airlifted to Chiang Mai in a specially-built steel cage, accompanied by four Thai handlers and a Sri Lankan zookeeper.

It will undergo hydrotherapy to treat an injury on its front left leg.

Both Sri Lanka and Thailand consider elephants to be sacred animals.

In 2001, the Thai royal family gifted three elephants, including Muthu Raja, to Sri Lanka's government to be trained as carriers of religious relics.

Muthu Raja was placed in the care of a temple in the south of the country.

Animal rights groups allege it was made to work with a logging crew in the temple, adding that it developed a stiff leg from a long-neglected injury.

Sri Lanka-based activist group Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE) lobbied last year for Thai officials to intervene after months of unsuccessful attempts to get Sri Lanka's government to act, the group's founder Panchali Panapitiya said.

Ms Panapitiya said the failure of Sri Lankan wildlife officials to act had brought "disrepute" to the country, The Independent reported. RARE has also petitioned for authorities to prosecute those responsible for the elephant's neglect.

Sri Lankan wildlife minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi told local media Thailand had been "adamant" in demanding that Muthu Raja be returned after its ambassador in Sri Lanka found it to be in poor health during a visit last year.

Muthu Raja was in pain and covered in abscesses when removed from the temple last November, AFP reported. Activists claim its handler inflicted some of those wounds.

It was temporarily transferred to Sri Lanka's National Zoological Garden and most of its wounds have healed in recent months.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told his parliament in June that he had conveyed his regret to the Thai king Maha Vajiralongkorn over Muthu Raja's alleged abuse and was able to "re-establish trust between the two countries".

The Thai government stopped sending elephants overseas about three years ago following protests from activists, Thai environment minister Varawut Silpa-archa said in June.

Bangkok's wildlife department said it is monitoring the condition of Thai elephants already sent overseas.


Uncertain fate awaits Thailand's elephant tourism
Published
3 January


'Record number' of elephant deaths in Sri Lanka
Published
11 January 2020


Emaciated 70-year-old Sri Lankan elephant dies
Published
25 September 2019


The tragic lives of India's mistreated captive elephants
Published
24 April 2018

Elephant tourism is 'fuelling cruelty'
Published
6 July 2017

An ailing Thai elephant returns home for tender loving care after years of neglect in Sri Lanka


Jintamas Saksornchai
The Associated Press
Staff
Published July 2, 2023

A veterinarian gives water to "Sak Surin," an ailing elephant that had allegedly not been well cared for in Sri Lanka, which had received it as a gift from the Thai government, but was returned to its home country and taken to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang province in northern Thailand, July 2, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Nareerat Chaywichain)

BANGKOK -

An ailing elephant that Thailand had presented to Sri Lanka more than two decades ago returned to his native land for medical treatment Sunday following allegations that the animal was badly abused while living at a Buddhist temple.

The male elephant, known in Sri Lanka as Muthu Raja, or Pearly King, and as Sak Surin, or Mighty Surin, in Thailand, was flown directly from the South Asian island nation's capital to Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand on a Russian Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane.

A six-person team, including two veterinarians and four mahouts, or professional elephant trainers, accompanied the elephant on the flight, which took about six hours.

A special container was built to hold the 275-centimetre- (9-foot-) tall, 4-ton pachyderm. Several mahouts went to Sri Lanka in advance to accustom the animal to being caged so he wouldn't panic during the trip to Thailand.

Video footage of his arrival in Chiang Mai showed the elephant conscious and appearing calm.

Thai Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa was at the airport and said the elephant landed in perfect condition. He said earlier that Thailand spent at least 19 million baht (US$540,000) for the animal's repatriation.

The pachyderm could be heard trumpeting from inside the container that was loaded onto a truck's flatbed trailer to transport him to the government's Thai Elephant Conservation Center in nearby Lampang province, where he will be quarantined for at least 30 days and stay for rehabilitation.

The elephant was sent to Sri Lanka in 2001 when he was around 10 years old as a gift from the Thai royal family. He was one of three elephants that Thailand gave to Sri Lanka's government for training as a carrier of religious relics. Mathu Raja was placed in the care of a Buddhist temple.

A Sri Lanka-based animal rights group, Rally for Animal Rights and Environment group, alleged in 2020 that the animal was in bad health due to years of hard labor and abuse, and needed urgent medical care. The group started a petition calling for him to be rescued and later called for the elephant's return to Thailand after the Sri Lankan government allegedly ignored the activists' complaints.

Thailand's Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement in November 2022 saying a preliminary investigation was conducted by the Thai Embassy in Sri Lanka concluded that the elephant "was not in good health and was in poor living conditions." The statement said Thailand would seek Sri Lanka's approval to bring the elephant back for treatment.

The elephant was reported to be underweight, have rough skin and abscesses on both hips, thinning foot pads, and a stiff left foreleg, making it difficult for him to walk and stand.

He was moved from the Buddhist temple to Sri Lanka's National Zoological Garden for preliminary treatment and appeared healthier before his flight to Thailand.


Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told members of Parliament last month that while visiting Thailand in May he had expressed his regret to his Thai counterpart over what had happened to the elephant.

Thai officials have said the main purpose of bringing the animal back was for medical care and whether he returns to Sri Lanka remains a subject to be discussed with the Colombo government.

During a press conference in Bangkok last month, Thai Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said authorities would start surveying the health condition of other Thai elephants in foreign countries. He said exporting Thai elephants was already banned for conservation reasons.
RELATED IMAGES

Hachiko: The world's most loyal dog turns 100

Nicholas Yong - BBC News, Singapore
Sun, July 2, 2023 

A statue of Hachiko has stood outside Shibuya station in Tokyo since 1948

The Chinese tagline on the movie poster says it all: "I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes."

It tells the true story of Hachiko, the faithful dog that continued to wait for its master at a train station in Japan long after his death.

The cream white Akita Inu, born 100 years ago, has been memorialised in everything from books to movies to the cult science fiction sitcom Futurama. And the Chinese iteration - the third after a Japanese version in 1987, and the Richard Gere-starrer in 2009 - is a hit at the box office.

There have been tales of other devoted hounds such as Greyfriars Bobby, but none with the global impact of Hachiko.

A bronze statue of him has stood outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo, where he waited in vain for a decade, since 1948. The statue was first erected in 1934 before being recycled for the war effort during World War Two. Japanese schoolchildren are taught the story of Chuken Hachiko - or loyal dog Hachiko - as an example of devotion and fidelity.

Hachiko represents the "ideal Japanese citizen" with his "unquestioning devotion", says Professor Christine Yano of the University of Hawaii - "loyal, reliable, obedient to a master, understanding, without relying upon rationality, their place in the larger scheme of things".
The story of Hachiko

Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the city of Odate in Akita prefecture, the original home of Akitas.

A large-sized Japanese dog, the Akita is one of the country's oldest and most popular breeds. Designated by the Japanese government as a national icon in 1931, they were once trained to hunt animals like wild boar and elk.

"Akita dogs are calm, sincere, intelligent, and brave [and] obedient to their masters," said Eietsu Sakuraba, author of an English language children's book about Hachiko. "On the other hand, it also has a stubborn personality and is wary of anyone other than its master."

The year Hachiko was born, Hidesaburo Ueno, a renowned agricultural professor and a dog lover, asked a student to find him an Akita puppy.

Hachiko became nationally known in Japan after a newspaper article in 1932

After a gruelling train journey, the puppy arrived at the Ueno residence in Shibuya district on 15 January 1924, where it was initially thought dead. According to Hachiko's biographer, Prof Mayumi Itoh, Ueno and his wife Yae nursed him back to health over the next six months.

Ueno named him Hachi, or eight in Japanese. Ko is an honorific bestowed by Ueno's students.

The long wait

Ueno took a train to work several times a week. He was accompanied to Shibuya station by his three dogs, including Hachiko. The trio would then wait there for his return in the evening.

On 21 May 1925, Ueno, then 53, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Hachiko had been with him for just 16 months.

"While people were attending the wake, Hachi smelled Dr Ueno from the house and went inside the living room. He crawled under the coffin and refused to move," writes Prof Itoh.

Hachiko spent the next few months with different families outside Shibuya but eventually, in the summer of 1925, he ended up with Ueno's gardener Kikusaburo Kobayashi.

Having returned to the area where his late master lived, Hachiko soon resumed his daily commute to the station, rain or shine.

"In the evening, Hachi stood on four legs at the ticket gate and looked at each passenger as if he were looking for someone," writes Prof Itoh. Station employees initially saw him as a nuisance. Yakitori vendors would pour water on him and little boys bullied and hit him.

However, he gained nationwide fame after Japanese daily Tokyo Asahi Shimbun wrote about him in October 1932.

The station received donations of food for Hachiko each day, while visitors came from far and wide to see him. Poems and haikus were written about him. A fundraising event in 1934 to make a statue of him reportedly drew a crowd of 3,000.

Hachiko's eventual death on 8 March 1935 made the front page of many newspapers. At his funeral, Buddhist monks offered prayers for him and dignitaries read eulogies. Thousands visited his statue in the following days.

Hachiko's statue is a popular spot and often a place for political protests

In impoverished post-war Japan, a fundraising drive for a new statue of Hachiko even managed to raise 800,000 yen, an enormous sum at the time, worth about 4bn yen (£22m; $28m) today.

"In retrospect, I feel that he knew that Dr Ueno would not come back, but he kept waiting - Hachiko taught us the value of keeping faith in someone," wrote Takeshi Okamoto in a newspaper article in 1982. As a high school student, he had seen Hachiko at the station daily.

Remembering Hachiko

Every year on 8 April, a memorial service for Hachiko is held outside Shibuya Station. His statue is often decorated with scarves, Santa hats and, most recently, a surgical mask.

His mount is on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. Some of his remains are interred at the Aoyama Cemetery, alongside Ueno and Yae. Statues of him have also been cast in Odate, Ueno's hometown Hisai, the University of Tokyo and Rhode Island, the American setting for the 2009 movie.

Odate also has a series of events lined up this year for his 100th birthday.

Will the world's most loyal dog still be celebrated a century from now? Prof Yano says yes because she believes the "heroism of Hachiko" is not defined by any particular period - rather it is timeless.

Mr Sakuraba is equally optimistic. "Even 100 years from now, this unconditional, devoted love will remain unchanged, and the story of Hachiko will live on forever."

ALL OUR RELATIONS

The human-chimp bond captured in an iconic photo

(Image credit: Hugo van Lawick)

By Anna Turns

BBC

23rd June 2023

In 1964, Jane Goodall's husband Hugo van Lawick took a photo of her and an infant chimp reaching out to each other. Decades later, it continues to impact how we view chimpanzees.

On 14 July 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall arrived by boat to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania. Here, in what is now Gombe Stream National Park, her ground-breaking scientific research into chimpanzee behaviour began.

Previously a secretarial student without an undergraduate degree in science, Goodall says she observed her wild subjects with an open mind and without preconceptions. Controversially at the time, she defied convention by giving these chimps names instead of numbers.

One image taken of Goodall during this time captured her fresh approach, challenged the scientific norm and has become one of the world's most recognisable photos.

Her late husband, Dutch photographer Hugo van Lawick, went to Gombe in 1962 where he took thousands of photographs of Goodall. But it was in 1964 that he took what became an iconic photograph of Goodall with an infant chimp known as Flint.

In the photo, Goodall is shown crouching down and reaching out with her right arm to Flint, the first chimp to be born at Gombe after Goodall's arrival, as he extends his left arm up towards her.

As Goodall tells BBC Future, this was long before the era of digital photography, so she had to wait a while before she could see the printed images. "It was couple of months or more before there was a safe way to send exposed rolls to the [National] Geographic for processing, and then another wait while they sent the prints back to Kigoma," she recalls. "When I saw it, though I did not realise it would become iconic, it did make me think of Michelangelo's painting of God reaching out to Man."

The photo of Jane Goodall with infant chimp Flint challenged scientific norms and changed our view of the animal kingdom 

(Credit: Hugo van Lawick)

The photo, taken in 1964, was first published in National Geographic magazine in December 1965. Another photo of Goodall studying the Gombe chimpanzees was on the front cover and published as part of van Lawick's photo series titled "New Discoveries Among Africa's Chimpanzees". That same year, National Geographic released Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, the first of many documentaries showcasing Goodall's research.

The photo, along with van Lawick's documentary film People of the Forest: The Chimps of Gombe, "forced science to abandon the idea that humans were the only sentient beings with personalities, minds and emotions" says Goodall, adding that she was taught this as a student at Cambridge University in 1962. "Thus [this image] opened up a whole new way of understanding who animals are and showed that we humans are a part of and not separated from the rest of the animal kingdom."

Goodall was the first person to notice that chimpanzees were stripping down stiff blades of grass, then sticking them into holes in termite mounds to catch and eat these insects. Until then, tool use like this was believed to distinguish humans from all other animals.

Mark Wright, director of science at conservation charity WWF, says Goodall was "a real trailblazer" in many ways. But this photograph helped people recognise the importance of a female perspective within the scientific research community, he says. "She was a young woman saying that women are equally well-placed to do really first class research in the field.

"Up until then, it had been a pretty male-dominated environment. There then was a succession of high profile women doing this sort of work."

Gilbert M Grosvenor, former chair of the National Geographic Society, has likewise argued that "Goodall's trailblazing path for other women primatologists is arguably her greatest legacy".

"During the last third of the 20th Century, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Cheryl Knott, Penny Patterson, and many more women have followed her," he wrote in the Jane Goodall Institute's biography of the primatologist."Indeed, women now dominate long-term primate behavioural studies worldwide." (Read more: The woman who redefined mankind).

Goodall's trailblazing path for other women primatologists is arguably her greatest legacy – Gilbert M Grosvenor

When the photo was taken in 1964, Goodall was immersed in life at Gombe, beginning to understand the chimps she was studying and slowly building up her observations of their behaviour. This first-hand experience has always been her priority, says Wright. "This photo reminded us that for much of this work, there's no alternative to being in the field. A lot of studies were in zoos or safari parks – you need to get in the field to really understand the natural behaviour. And you have to do that for the long-term, you can't just nip in for a couple of weeks. She reinforced that."

Goodall went to East Africa without any formal qualifications and lived in Gombe for more than two decades, dedicating her life to studying chimps for generations. Wright says this photo relays a powerful message to people who haven't studied science but still want to get involved in research because sometimes, an open mind is the best starting point: "This wasn't someone in a lab coat, she made it relatable. And because she wasn't encumbered by lots of formal training, she could go in as a free thinker and then interpret [what she saw]."

Jane Goodall's research into chimps in Tanzania paved the way for other female primatologists 

(Credit: Penelope Breese / Getty Images)

Keen to open the world of scientific research up to everyone, Goodall has inspired many people to study primatology in the field. Since 1960, more than 482 scientific research papers and graduate theses about chimpanzee health and behaviour have been published by Gombe Stream Research Center, with hundreds of scientists studying there.

CARBON COUNT

The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Find out more about how we calculated this figure here.

Alongside her vast body of documentary films, books and National Geographic articles, Goodall's photographs with Flint flagged the importance of conserving individual animals. "Previously it was all about saving species – individuals were not important. The scientific thinking changed," says Goodall.

A 2021 review by US anthropologist Michael Lawrence Wilson summarises the many findings of research undertaken at Gombe and reflects on the impact of the chimpanzee research efforts pioneered here by Goodall. "Gombe exemplifies what has become a standard approach for primate field studies: collaborative research, collecting systematic information on identified individuals, followed throughout their entire lives," it concludes.

Today this photo makes Goodall feel nostalgic. "It reminds me of a magical time when I knew each individual chimpanzee as well as members of my family. I watched Flint's development from a tiny infant to a spoilt brat, always supported by his older sister or one of his older brothers if another youngster accidentally (or sometimes deliberately!) hurt him. The image makes me think of those best days of my life," she says.

The image reminds me of a magical time when I knew each individual chimpanzee as well as members of my family – Jane Goodall

The closeness between Goodall and Flint in the photograph also reflects the culture at the time, says Wright, noting that scientists now keep further from the animal subjects they are observing. "But she was doing something that hadn't really been done before…I take my hat off to her. Her work was absolutely ground-breaking."

Above all, the picture shows Goodall's genuine love for her subject, Wright says. "There is a warmth and an affection for the species she's studying. There's also a love for Gombe, too – she found her place."

For Goodall, it's her simple connection to Flint that makes this image so captivating. "I suspect it was the appeal of that little infant reaching out so trustingly – a real bond between human and chimpanzee. At least, that is why it is so powerful for me!"

*The Jane Goodall Institute notes that physical contact with wild animals is no longer deemed appropriate and says that it "does not endorse handling, interacting or close proximity to chimpanzees or other wildlife".

--

CANADA/QUEBEC COLONY

UN chief says Haiti urgently needs international security force and humanitarian aid

A man crosses a dusty street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, June 4, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Evens Sanon
The Associated Press
Updated July 1, 2023 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Haiti on Saturday and again called on foreign governments with strong security forces to help the struggling country fight a surge in gang violence.

The appeal was made after Guterres met with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, civil society leaders, UN staff and the heads of various political parties during his one-day trip.

"Now is not the time to forget Haiti or weaken our solidarity with its people," he said.

Guterres met with reporters at Haiti's international airport in Port-au-Prince, who pressed him on whether an international security force would be deployed as requested by the prime minister last October.

Guterres said he spoke about the issue with Henry, as well as the need to hold credible elections.

"I am not here to tell Haitians what to do. I am here to listen to them and to encourage them to build consensus as broadly as possible to move the transition process forward," he said.

Henry, who has been running the country since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, has been under pressure to hold elections. But experts have noted it is impossible to do so given the current level of violence in the country, with gangs controlling an estimated 80% of the capital.

There are no democratically elected institutions left in Haiti, with the country failing to hold legislative elections since October 2019.

"Haiti must return to democratic order as soon as possible," Guterres said.

He also said Haiti urgently needs more humanitarian aid as poverty deepens and starvation cases spike. Gangs are preventing the movement of goods and people and controlling access to water, food and health care as civilians attempt to fight back via a violent uprising.

"I felt all the exhaustion of a population that has been facing for too long a cascade of crises and unsustainable living conditions," Guterres said. "One in two people in Haiti live in extreme poverty, face hunger and lack regular access to drinking water."

Guterres' visit came just days after the UN's human rights expert in Haiti visited the country and also called for an international security force and a weapons embargo.


Guterres is scheduled to attend a summit Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago held by Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc.

------

Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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PRIGOZHIN TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT PUTIN’S WAR IN UKRAINE

Yevgeny Prigozhin is a disinformation artist whose failed rebellion was marked by a burst of radical honesty.

James Risen

THE INTERCEPT

July 1 2023

ONE OF THE most subversive things that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin did during his brief rebellion last weekend was to tell the truth.

Prigozhin is a pathological liar, a professional disinformation artist who was indicted in the United States in connection with the internet troll farm he ran, which was at the forefront of Russian efforts to intervene in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump win.

But as the mercenary boss began his mutiny in late June, he experienced a brief and surprising bout of honesty when he launched into an online tirade against what he said were the lies used by Moscow to justify the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. His comments were so candid and off-message for a Russian leader that it seemed as if someone had mistakenly handed him a speech meant for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Related
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Coup Targets Putin and His “Oligarchic Clan”

The invasion was nothing more than a massive land grab by the Russian oligarchy, Prigozhin charged, designed to enrich the country’s powerful elites while poor Russians served as cannon fodder. Russian claims that a Nazi regime in Ukraine, backed by NATO, was about to attack Russia were lies, Prigozhin said. The war was started by the Russian oligarchy to benefit themselves and gain power. In his rant, Prigozhin did not criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, focusing instead on the broader Russian elite, and specifically on his personal enemy Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“The Ministry of Defense is trying to deceive the public and the president and spin the story that there were insane levels of aggression from the Ukrainian side and that they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO bloc,” Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel on June 23. The truth, he said, was that “there was nothing extraordinary happening on the eve of February 24,” the day last year when Russian invaded. Ukraine was not planning any kind of attack against Russia, he added.

Russia’s invasion “was started for a completely different reason,” Prigozhin said. “What was the war for? The war was needed for Shoigu to receive a hero star. … The oligarchic clan that rules Russia needed the war,” he said. “The mentally ill scumbags decided: ‘It’s OK, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want.’”

“Shoigu killed thousands of the most combat-ready Russian soldiers in the first days of the war,” Prigozhin said, adding that the invasion began even as Zelenskyy and Ukraine were eager for peace. The Ukrainian leader “was ready for agreements. All that needed to be done was to get off Mount Olympus and negotiate with him.”

Prigozhin thus punctured the main argument used by Russian propagandists and their Western lackeys: that NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War caused the war in Ukraine. Putin has constantly railed against NATO, and his misleading narrative that the U.S. caused the war in Ukraine by pushing for alliance’s expansion has resonated widely among pro-Putin right-wing extremists in the West.

Prigozhin quickly followed up his criticism of the war by leading his Wagner mercenaries in an armed rebellion. They left Ukraine, seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and marched north toward Moscow. By June 24, just as Prigozhin and his troops were closing in on Moscow, he lost his nerve and cut a deal with Putin. The deal was brokered by Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally. Prigozhin is apparently going into exile in Belarus while the status of Wagner forces in Ukraine and elsewhere remains in flux.

But even as Prigozhin exits the scene, his rare bout of honesty could have a delayed impact. If Prigozhin’s comments become widely known in Russia despite the regime’s strict censorship, they could lead to a further erosion of Russian support for the war. Putin’s hold on power, meanwhile, has already been seriously weakened by Prigozhin’s rebellion.

It is still unclear whether Prigozhin’s candor will have any impact on right-wing extremists in the U.S. who support Putin and have defended his invasion of Ukraine. Right-wing pundits like former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson have been cheerleaders for Putin’s war, disseminating pro-Russian conspiracy theories like the false claim that the U.S. funded bio-weapons labs in Ukraine. The right-wing support for Putin and his invasion is strongest among Christian nationalists, a segment of pro-Trump evangelical Christians who have come to hate Western liberalism and yearn for an autocrat like Putin who would wipe away wokeness. They have been joined by members of other fringe groups, like those who claim to be anti-imperialists while supporting Putin’s imperial ambitions.

Prigozhin is a terrible messenger of the truth. He certainly had his own selfish reasons for stating that Russia’s war is built on lies. Yet his truth-telling may ultimately help rip off the façade Putin erected to conceal the reality of his war in Ukraine.

Dismissing Rebellion as ‘Minor,’ Kremlin Dismantles Prigozhin’s Empire

Ivan Nechepurenko and Cassandra Vinograd

The New York Times

Sat, July 1, 2023 

A resident rides his bicycle by a sign warning for the presence of mines inside the cemetery in Sviatohirsk, in eastern Ukraine, on June 25, 2023.

 (Mauricio Lima/The New York Times)

The mercenary rebellion that shook Russia was merely “a minor trouble,” the foreign minister said on Friday, warning the West not to think that President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power had weakened, even as the Kremlin continued to move against the leader of the mutiny.

Speaking at a news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Russia would emerge “stronger and more resilient” after the short-lived putsch last Friday and Saturday by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner group troops, who have played a vital role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lavrov dismissed the rebellion, which drove an armored column to within 125 miles of Moscow before turning back, as insignificant.

“If someone in the West has doubts about this, then that’s their problem,” he said. He added that the Western nations backing Ukraine were misguided if they hoped that “the facade of the Russian government had cracked.”

The Kremlin has insisted repeatedly that the uprising had no support and the nation was united behind Putin, who has described the episode as an important test that Russia had emphatically passed. But it is clear that the government is still cleaning up its aftermath.

The fates of two key figures remain unclear: Prigozhin and Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a top military commander seen as being aligned with Prigozhin. Neither has been heard from publicly since last weekend, their whereabouts have not been confirmed, and it is not clear what degree of freedom, if any, either man still enjoys.

The government of Belarus, Putin’s closest international ally, said on Tuesday that Prigozhin had gone into exile there, but there has been no independent corroboration of that. Russian authorities have apparently agreed not to prosecute Prigozhin or his troops, in return for his decision to stand down last Saturday without a major armed clash.

U.S. officials say that Surovikin, commander of Russian air forces and formerly commander of the war effort in Ukraine, probably knew in advance about the mutiny, and appears to have been detained. The Russian government has refused to comment. Some pro-war Russian bloggers have reported that he was arrested, while others have denied it.

William Burns, the CIA director, called the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service after last week’s rebellion to assure the Kremlin the U.S. had no involvement, according to a U.S. official, one of several contacts delivering that message. The CIA declined to comment on Burn’ call, which was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Biden administration has taken pains to emphasize to Russian officials that it had no hand in the uprising, and views it as an internal Russian matter. In public comments, Lavrov has appeared to accept those explanations.

Russia’s state media regulator has blocked a news website controlled by Prigozhin, and on Friday, a Russian newspaper, Kommersant, reported that several others had been blocked as well. Russian security services have reportedly raided the offices of other Prigozhin holdings.

Putin, whose government had long denied any connection to Wagner — as did Prigozhin until last year — admitted this week that Kremlin contracts had supported the private army. He said there would be an investigation of those contracts to punish graft and profiteering.

The Kremlin has moved this week to take control of Wagner mercenary forces in other countries, including Syria and the Central African Republic, where they have formed the brutal spear point of Russian support for repressive governments, often while securing lucrative concessions in natural resources. Russian diplomats have rushed to assure their allies of continued Wagner backing.

John Kirby, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Friday that Wagner, working for the military junta that rules Mali, had engineered the departure of a United Nations peacekeeping force in that country to further its own business interests. Weeks ago, the junta asked the peacekeepers to leave “without delay,” and on Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted to withdraw them.

It is unclear what will become of Wagner troops who have been fighting in Ukraine, an important part of the Russian war effort that has given Prigozhin a robust following in Russia. They have been ordered to sign contracts by Saturday with the Defense Ministry, putting them under the control of the regular Russian military, if they are to remain part of the war.

That order spelled the end of Wagner as an independent force in Ukraine, weakened Prigozhin as a political force, and showed that he had lost his long-running power struggle against the leaders of Russia’s military establishment. He said it also prompted his rebellion, which he insisted was aimed at those military leaders, not at Putin.

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus said this week that he would be willing to take in Wagner fighters who are unwilling to join the Russian military, and offered them an abandoned military base. But it is unknown how many will accept the offer.

New satellite imagery from Thursday and Friday, analyzed by The New York Times, shows more than 250 tents, enough to house thousands of troops, have been erected in the past five days at an unused base. The Times first reported Wednesday on rapid construction there. The images show no sign so far of a major troop presence.

The relocation of Wagner fighters to Belarus could create a new threat to Ukraine on its northern border, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday ordered defenses there strengthened.

c.2023 The New York Times Company